We are a NEW CREATION!

Good Morning!  Have you ever had GREAT News that changed your life and you wanted to shout it from the roof top?  Maybe you DID shout it from the rooftop!!  I can remember feeling that way when my husband proposed to me, and again when we found out we were having our first child, and yet again at the moment we found out we were having our second child, our daughter!  These were HUGE moments in my life!  My Identity was never going to be the same.  NO longer would I only be “Ashley,” I would be referred to as “Aaron’s WIFE,” and “Jayden and Anna’s MOM.”  I could not have been more thrilled!  I want to tell you something, I couldn’t wait to be called a wife and a mom, and it still thrills me to this day!  You will never see me hang my head when I tell you that I am a mother and a wife.  In fact, you may just see me hold my head a little higher and stand a little straighter.  Maybe you have felt that way too.  Maybe you have received a promotion and it changed who are at work, or maybe you have received a diploma that has changed your title.  When our identity changes for the better we embrace it and walk boldly in it, and yet I often wonder if we have missed the most incredible change that has ever taken place within us?

In so many conversations I have had with believers, I cannot count the number of times someone has told me “Well, I’m just a SINNER!”  What further drives the depth of that belief home is that as this statement is said their shoulders drop, their head turns down and their eyes follow suit.  I look at that posture and think, “THIS is what JESUS saved us FOR?”  He is Victorious and yet we are still living in defeat!!  I have heard the concept that “we are ALL Just sinners” preached many times and I believe the effect of this is damaging and untrue!!  Someone recently said to me that the most important part of Christianity is Knowing that we are sinners!  With eyes wide and heart heavy I said, “No, THAT is the most important part of SALVATION, The most important part of Christianity is KNOWING that we ARE SAVED!”  I want to bring Truth to this today and prayerfully offer some great news!!!  If you believe in Jesus Christ today you are SAVED!!!  You are NO LONGER called SINNERS, you are called SAINTS!!!  There are MANY names God calls His people in the New Testament.  He calls us “The Elect,” “A Royal Priesthood,”  “A Holy Nation,” “Chosen,” “Redeemed.” “Beloved,” but more than any other name, God calls us SAINTS!!  This is SO critical for us to grasp!  Saint means, “HOLY, Set Apart, Sacred to God.”  THIS is WHO we are now!  Think about how every New Testament letter to the church begins.  Paul NEVER starts a letter by saying, “To the SINNERS of Ephesus…”  NO!  HE begins almost every letter by saying, “To the SAINTS of Ephesus!”  We have a NEW identity!  Now, does this mean that we will never sin?  NO!  Of course we will mess up and fall short and need to ask for forgiveness, but this will NOT change who we are!  Let me put it this way, if I wrong my husband (which I have done many times) I will of course need to apologize in order to help mend the relationship, but at any moment does this mean that I am no longer his wife?  If I wrong my child do I stop being their mom?  NO!  My Identity does NOT change!  I AM a wife always, I AM a mother forever, and in an even more powerful way, I AM A SAINT for eternity!  Think about this… If all I ever think about myself is that I am a SINNER then sin will not mean very much to me at all.  I will think, “Well yeah, I sinned.  That’s what I do, I’m a sinner, I Sin!”  “Yeah, I lied.  That’s what I do; I am a sinner, I Lie!”  HOWEVER, when I KNOW that I am a SAINT of God, it changes my perspective of sin!  I feel the weight of it even more because it is so contrary to WHO I AM NOW!!!  If I mess up, I feel it in a profound way and am deeply saddened, why?  Because I know this is NOT who I am, and I don’t want any part of it!  2 Corinthians 5:17 says it like this:  “Therefore, IF ANYONE is IN Christ, they are a NEW CREATION; the OLD has passed away, and behold, the NEW has come!”  This is Something to Celebrate, to shout from the rooftops!  The old has passed away!  It is DEAD and GONE.  The NEW has come!  This word, NEW, means NEW!  IT does not mean Repurposed (where you keep the old thing but you try and spruce it up a bit).  It means NEW!  Our NEW Identity is something totally different than the identity we used to have.  We are SAINTS!  We are SET APART!  We are SACRED TO GOD!  Let’s walk like that!  Let’s dig in and unwrap our NEW Identity in Christ!  Let’s let the old be dead and buried, and let’s live in the NEW that we have been SAVED INTO!  “We are NO LONGER strangers and Aliens, but we are Fellow Citizens with the SAINTS and members of God’s Household!”  “To All who are beloved of God in Rome, called as Saints: Grace to you and Peace from God.”  “To the Church of God at Corinth, to those who have been Sanctified in Christ Jesus, SAINTS by calling…”  “To the SAINTS and Faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you…”  “To All the SAINTS in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi…”  “To the SAINTS who are in Ephesus…”  This is how God addresses His people, let’s do the same!  This encouragement today if for ALL those found in Christ…To The SAINTS of God!  May we Discover, Believe, and Live as the NEW CREATION that we ARE!

Scripture to Meditate on:  2 Corinthians 5:17, Eph. 2:19